Colin Kaepernick's Lawyers Seeking Testimony From President Trump

By Bill GalluccioJun 7, 2018

President Donald Trump

A report from Charles Robinson at Yahoo! Sports says that the legal team for former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is planning to "seek federal subpoenas in the coming weeks to compel testimony from Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and other officials familiar with the president’s agenda on protesting NFL players." Kaepernick's lawyers are hoping to show that comments made by President Trump had a negative impact on his standing with the league and are part of the reason why he remains unsigned by an NFL team.

The decision to force the President to testify comes after a report that league owners spoke with Trump when crafting the new policy that requires players who are on the field during the national anthem to stand. President Trump has routinely called out the kneeling players, both at rallies and on Twitter.

There is no guarantee that Trump or any other official from his administration will be forced to testify. Robinson explained the lengthy process just to get the subpoenas issued:

The quarterback’s legal team first must notify the system arbitrator of the need for targeted depositions beyond the boundaries of the agreement between the NFL and the player’s union. That would entail presenting a detailed argument to the system arbitrator overseeing the grievance, spelling out the relevance and impact that testimony from Trump or others could have on the grievance. If the arbitrator rules the testimony would be justifiable, that would open the door for Kaepernick’s attorneys to seek the subpoenas in a district court under the Federal Arbitration Act.